The Crow and the Pitcher
by Booksrgood4u
Summary: Kaz remembers a fable from his childhood.


Kaz didn't know where Jordie had gotten the little book. He'd brought it back to their tiny rooms after a day of job searching and presented it to his younger brother to keep him busy during the long hours spent alone while Jordie was out. It was a child's primer, filled with short stories and exercises, and Jordie insisted that Kaz read it. "You don't want to be behind the other boys once you start school," he had said. Kaz didn't see why it was so important that he go to school if Jordie didn't have to, but he was bored enough to do anything to break up the monotony. And so he read - fables and proverbs and morals, over and over to fill his day.

He hadn't thought about that little book in ages, it's lessons empty and childish compared his new life, alone on the streets, violence and hatred not quite filling the hole in his heart left by his brother. Kaz's mind was filled with revenge, and he knew he needed to find a gang that would suit his purpose. It wasn't until he saw the Dregs tattoo, the crow trying to drink from a nearly empty glass, that a niggling memory sparked at the back of his mind.

 _A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair._

Kaz remembered two boys, half dead with the plague, with help out of reach. The despair he had felt, waking up on the barge. But the Dregs would be his gang, and the despair would be washed away with revenge. His plans were coming together slowly, and he laid awake nights forming his next steps in his mind piece by piece.

 _Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher._

Years passed and Kaz rose through the ranks. Every day, every job bringing him one step closer to the day that Pekka Rollins would pay for his crimes. And when Kaz fell from the roof of the bank where Rollins had done business, he remembered that little book again, and the ingenious crow from the fable, and ordered his crows head cane. It was both a reminder and a warning.

 _At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life._

At last, Pekka Rollins was on his knees in despair, his empire dismantled. Kaz was reminded again of the clever bird, quenching his thirst and saving his life. Kaz's thirst for revenge had finally been quenched after years of patient planning, but he didn't know if he had anything left worth saving, and Jordie's life was lost years ago.

 **Moral**

 _Little by little does the trick._

"Why crows?" Inej had asked. He remembered Jordie, his commitment to sending his brother to school and making a better life for them both. He remembered his thirst for revenge and the steps he had taken to quench that thirst little by little. Brick by brick. It had indeed done the trick.

Now, looking at her in the morning light, Kaz realized that though he had accomplished his original goal, he was still thirsty. Not for revenge, not this time. Something different - more beautiful and fragile, something that he dared to believe might actually save his life, or whatever part of him was still worth saving. So when he felt her fingers ghost across the back of his knuckle, he steeled himself and clasped her hand in his. It was a tiny gesture compared to what he felt, but it was a step. Little by little, he reminded himself. Brick by brick wasn't just the way you took something down, it was also how you built something beautiful and new. Little by little, like the crow from the fable all those years ago, he would quench his thirst and save his life.


End file.
